[wangchungtonite]

Who pays the utility bills? Professor and administrative salaries? Is anyone allowed in just due to having a diploma? What keeps rampant cronyism and end of year cost splurges to keep high budget levels for the next year? Who sets the budget? How does enforcement work, government employees doing enforcing?

In short how do you pay for it given the already spiraling out of control costs of higher education?

[ndnxhs]

All fairly simple issues that many countries have solved.

[dodobirdlord]

I suppose so, but it's worth noting that no other nation's tertiary education system holds a candle to the United States.

[ndnxhs]

I would rather everyone have access to great education rather than the top 1% have access to outstanding education.

[cf498]

Because of a few flagship institutions who are valued quite a lot in comparison to the average institution.

[jogjayr]

Are you saying charging high tuition is responsible for making US universities better? Correlation alone does not equal causation. Is there any evidence for this statement?

[roberto]

Of the top 5 universities in dentistry, oral surgery and medicine in the world, 3 are in Brazil and are completely free:

https://cwur.org/2017/subjects.php#Dentistry,%20Oral%20Surge...

[titanomachy]

Switzerland and England both have schools in the top 10.

[em500]

Those schools don't admit everyone, and certainly not everyone for free.

[lozenge]

I can't speak for Switzerland but all universities in England charge the same for UK students with nothing upfront. Sure they don't have space for everybody who meets the minimum but that's inevitable. There are no legacy admissions, athletic admissions, positive discrimination etc. Everybody goes through the same process.

[titanomachy]

That's fine, I was just disputing that "no one holds a candle to the US education system".

[kome]

Why for Americans trivial problems seems more tricky than climbing the Himalaya?

If Spain, Italy, Germany and Sweden did it; US can do it too.

[pnw_hazor]

Some problems are easier to solve if you have a declining population and restrictive/merit based immigration policies.

Also, weeding out people from attending university at 14 years old helps too.